This is depressing

My mom didn't want me to tell this story online in case it became news somehow, but I'm withholding everyone's identities so there's no chance of that.

Anyway, my mom is a schoolteacher. A few days ago, she gave me an essay and asked my thoughts on it. It was a cute little essay, a bit naively written, about how much this one kid likes her teacher, and also included details of how some company built a new playground for her school, and a famous musician came out to perform.

While reading it, I was told it was written by a first-grader. First grade is when you learn to read and write, so I was quite impressed, though starting to question it when it got to the paragraph about the company and the musician.

Well, it turns out that the kid didn't write it. Her teacher did. But here's the rub: the essay won a contest sponsored by a local bookstore. That means this first-grader has to go and read it to a crowd, who might ask her questions. Questions she can't answer, like about the famous musician and what it was like meeting him.

If that's not enough, my mom told me that the poor kid was stumbling over "her" words when reading it. My mom was like "What's the matter, _____? Aren't these your words?" She thought the kid was having a hard time reading printed text as opposed to her own handwriting. It came out, though, that the kid's teacher wrote it.

So now a first-grader who has a hard time reading has to read an essay that she didn't write, can barely read, and answer questions she can't answer, in front of a crowd at a local bookstore. It will inevitably come out that this isn't the kid's own work, and will reflect badly on the school district (which deserves it, as they're a terrible school district anyway, though now they'll get a reputation for cheating).

I couldn't care less about this school district's reptuation, as it's already poor for a reason. I'm more worried about the stressful situation this poor kid is being put into. What that teacher did was really rotten.

Ok, first off, what action can be taken to protect the child from the situation? Clearly she can't be allowed to just stand up there and stumble it out, and then be tortured by questions. This has to be hit on the head, the person responsible for it has to be taken to task, and the issue resolved. The child needs to have things explained to her and the pressure taken off of her shoulders.

Why did the teacher originally write that essay anyway?

The kid is an idiot, and the teacher is an idiot. Both deserve to be punished.

The kid is an idiot? She's a first-grader, tricked by her teacher into submitting an essay the teacher wrote - if the kid even did submit it, rather than the teacher. The kid's been set up. Why should she be punished?

^^Izumoshep, take this from someone who has actually taught in a classroom. The amount of responsibility you can put on a 5-6 year old is extremely limited. A kid that young sees a teacher as a source of comfort and protection. Its unreasonable to expect her to challenge an authority figure or go against them on ethical grounds.

Can they not simply, say, allow the kid to be "ill" on that day, and say that they cannot attend?

My knee-jerk reaction is to say the child is responsible, but as pointed out she's too young to be reasonably expected to have said "no."

However, she's still not the victim. Just because she is not old enough to be expected to have refused to cooperate, does not mean that she should be expected to have gone along with it.

The teacher should certainly be fired, though. I do not see why you would not want to make this known to your school board or what have you.

I am going to go with the child a victim on this one. The kid was probably hand picked by the teacher. Also can a first grader understand the concept of what happened?

What was the teacher going to get out of it?

Yes. First graders are perfectly capable of understanding what cheating is, and that they should not do it. If the child was older (say in middle school or so), then I'd say she was as responsible for it as the teacher. Since she's so young, though, she could not be reasonably expected to have refused if the teacher told her to pass the paper off as her own. She's still not a victim, since she should have known it was wrong, and was not herself harmed by it.

(Edited for ninja and clarification.)

edited 12th Apr '11 2:24:52 PM by Wanderhome

^^That, is a very good question.

^^First graders are barely old enough to understand object permanence. They don't understand conservation of matter at all.

I don't think someone who doesn't have a grasp on such basic physical concepts can really be held culpable for their actions.

It's unfair to expect a six-year-old to be able to go against an adult she's usually expected to obey, even if she does understand the concept of cheating. It's not a burden she should be bearing.

Probably so, but does a first grader really have an understanding of why cheating is wrong beyond "people with authority tell me not to do it"? That seems more important in assigning culpability.

They're six even if it was their idea, it's not like a six year old is able to grasp the basic principles of plagiarism.

Well, status update. My mom went to the event at the bookstore where the first-grader read "her" essay, and... she did great. Apparently she read it in such a way that it was believable. So the fakery didn't get discovered. I'm still pissed that the teacher did that to the kid, making her receive praise for something she didn't write - though at least people didn't dump on the kid and realize she'd been duped into doing this.

"First graders are barely old enough to understand object permanence. They don't understand conservation of matter at all. "

Source?

"It's unfair to expect a six-year-old to be able to go against an adult she's usually expected to obey, even if she does understand the concept of cheating."

From the very post you are replying to:

"Since she's so young, though, she could not be reasonably expected to have refused if the teacher told her to pass the paper off as her own. "

EDIT: Forgive me, but I still do not understand why you or your mother don't want to report this.

edited 12th Apr '11 4:54:44 PM by Wanderhome

I thought it was his mother and we are just using euphemisms.

I mean how else would his mother know it was written by a teacher and introduce it to her kid as written by a first grader? It is not like the teacher would confess to committing a crime if they do not stand to be caught.

edited 12th Apr '11 5:03:00 PM by TheDeadMansLife

Source.

Jean Piaget did a lot of work on this.

Incidentally, I was apparently wrong that six-year-olds don't have object permanence, but they definitely don't have conservation. More relevantly, they have trouble understanding that other people think different things than they do. It's a pretty basic part of moral reasoning to lack, no?

Could a 6 year old understand that an authority figure can give them an order that was wrong? I mean some adults have trouble with that one, so a six year old...

The kid's not at all at fault. She's at the young age where kids are taught to obey authority figures, like teachers and parents, without question. If one of those figures says to do something wrong, she'd probably obey without asking why.

Not only that, but she most likely didn't comprehend that what she was expected to do is wrong. It's not as if plagerism is something a 6 year old would know about.

No, it is not that important to moral reasoning (ethical reasoning, it is important to).

But this is getting into quibbling. My whole point was that the child should have known that cheating was wrong, but could not have been reasonably expected to hold to that in the face of her teacher's actions. Therefore, she is not entirely innocent in this, but she cannot reasonably be held responsible for it.

edited 12th Apr '11 5:51:30 PM by Wanderhome

So, you'd have nothing to argue against if the kid knew what she did was "wrong"?

Could you please clarify? What do you mean by "[I'd] have nothing to argue against"?